He Caged Me, Just to Guard His Lover

I've loved dogs since I was little. So my grandfather Howard Carter gave me Julian Carter—wrapped him up like a pet and handed him to me. From that day on, I took pleasure in cracking the whip, laughing as I lashed him raw while sweetly calling him uncle through gritted teeth. But one day, the dog chewed through its leash and bit back. To the world, I remained the untouchable Carter heiress. Behind closed doors, when midnight shadows stretched long, he'd press me into the mattress by my throat, forcing me to my knees as he growled, "When will you whelp my pup? " I swallowed every humiliation—until the day I found out I was pregnant and overheard him cooing to his long-lost first love. "Marry me. I'll make Mia Carter disappear—you'll never have to see her again." My fingers traced the scars laddering my arm. Not grief, just a countdown. Seven marks. Then I'd be free. ***** Consciousness seeped back as Julian's panting breaths slowed against my neck. We lay tangled like lovers, skin still humming—until a phone's shrill scream tore us apart. He grabbed the device, saw the name, and yanked away from me in one fluid motion. "Winnie?" His voice turned liquid honey. "What's wrong?" Winnie Miller. The girl who'd pulled him from a river at twelve. The woman he'd proposed to ten times with rose-filled yachts and villas under star-drenched skies. Her voice through the speaker hit me like a bucket of ice water, freezing the afterglow in my veins. I choked back the confession trembling on my tongue—that I was almost a month pregnant—and stayed mute. "Julian," her accusation crackled through the line, "you're with that Mia again, aren't you?" Though his body still radiated heat, his eyes frosted over as they sliced toward me. "Just some stray," he soothed. "If she bothers you, I'll put her down." Whatever she said next made him stride toward the bathroom, promising loud enough for me to hear. "Say yes, and I'll have her gone by dawn. You'll never see her shadow again." My stomach dropped like a stone. I stumbled from bed, scrubbing his scent from my skin before collapsing onto the rug. The blanket I dragged over myself might as well have been tissue paper for all the warmth it offered. Suddenly I thought back to eight years ago, watching Julian curl on my floor night after night like a whipped dog after Howard dragged him back. Silent. Enduring. Everyone thought I'd broken his pride. No one knew I'd covered for him as he built a secret empire, emerging as Eira City's most feared new power. When Howard's stroke left the Carter family bleeding, it was Julian who went for the jugular—until I knelt before him, offering my inheritance and my body to stop the collapse. That bargain was sealed on my twentieth birthday. "Shower." His voice jerked me from near-sleep. The tenderness he'd reserved for her still lingered at the corners of his mouth. "You can use the bed tonight." "Winnie said yes to marrying me. Mia, you're getting an auntie soon." His lips curled into a rare, genuine smile—one I hadn't seen in years. The memory hit me like a freight train. Eight years ago, when we'd fled the Carter family hand in hand, defying the world. His eyes had blazed as he shouted to the sky, "From today on, Mia belongs to Julian!" Now? Even when he was deep inside me, his eyes burned with hate. That tenderness, that love—gone like it never existed. Acid rose in my throat, but I choked it back. "Congrats." Moving on autopilot, I swayed into the bathroom and stabbed at my phone. Mia: Initiate Phase One. Prep the documents. The response was immediate. Leo: On it, Boss. I shoved my phone aside and turned my face into the blistering spray. Six years. Eleven months. Almost there. The Carter family—a nest of monsters, rotten with cruelty—would finally crumble before my eyes. My fingertips caught on the six raised scars along my right arm. I exhaled sharply, squeezing my stinging eyes shut. One. More. Month. The seventh scar would seal my freedom. And never look back.